


To Our Fortune

by almostjulie



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-10
Updated: 2016-03-10
Packaged: 2018-05-25 21:52:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6211459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/almostjulie/pseuds/almostjulie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack reacquaints himself with the true love of his life, the <em>Pearl</em>. Set after <em>Curse of the Black Pearl</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Our Fortune

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to LJ in 2010.
> 
> Feedback is always appreciated!

Three nights after he’s regained the helm of the _Black Pearl_ , Jack Sparrow and his crew anchor off of Tortuga to celebrate. He walks into the first tavern he lays his eyes on, intending not to stumble back out until morning. The rum is a bit watered-down for his tastes, but that’s Tortuga – disreputable ports rarely get shipments of the good stuff. As the night wears on, the crowd gets rowdier; the rum might not be strong, but it’s flowing freely. Jack’s had more than enough mayhem lately, and prefers to fight his battles at sea, so he stays out of the thick of it, just picking a few pockets at opportune moments. 

With the stolen loot he hires a girl who takes him up to her room on the second floor. She moves on top of him in a steady rhythm, slowly building faster. But instead of watching the sway of her breasts, his eyes are fixed past her, toward the harbor. He can just see the _Pearl_ ’s main topgallant, rocking gently to its own rhythm in the bay. 

His release comes early. Hers, apparently, does not come at all, and she slaps him across his face as she climbs off of him. “No good drunken pirate,” she says, and curses him under her breath. 

She kicks him out before he has his shirt back on, and dumps his belongings out the window into the alley below. He frantically searches the small pile, making sure his belongings are all there – belt, coat, hat, gun, compass. He breathes a sigh of relief at the last item. It will bring him fortune and luck, he is certain. 

Back on the dock again, Jack stares out at the _Black Pearl_ , his beautiful woman, dark and regal under the starlight. He thinks of her under Barbossa’s hand and grimaces. She is a little worse for the wear, but it is nothing a little paint and some new sails won’t fix. She’ll also need a proper crew – or at least as close to proper as a pirate crew gets. Gibbs’ assembly was good enough in a pinch, but it will take a larger contingent to properly crew the _Pearl_ , and he expects that a number of the men will have disappeared into Tortuga and will not reappear when it is time to set sail. 

Save for Gibbs, he could take or leave most of that crew. He isn’t so sure about where his feelings lie about Anamaria. She’s a good sailor, but he always finds himself back in her debt. He suspects she won’t show in the morning: wind and tide may throw them together on occasion, but they live their separate lives. 

The _Pearl_ needs some work, but Jack’s a pirate with treasure to find and ports to plunder, and soon enough he’ll set her to rights. What kind of captain would he be otherwise?

The tide is going out, and the _Pearl_ is pulling at her anchor like she wants to be free, back in the open ocean. Jack can’t fault her for that. 

Jack eyes the _Pearl_ ’s longboat disappointedly. It will be hours before any of his men return and it is too cumbersome to handle by himself. Never short on inspiration, however, Jack commandeers another ship’s dinghy and rows for the _Pearl_. 

When he pulls himself up on deck, it is like coming home, and with no one aboard to see him he flops down unceremoniously on his back and revels in her company. He closes his eyes and listens to the creak of her boards, the pull of her rigging, and the lapping of the sea against her sides. He feels the roughness of the deck under his fingertips and inhales the salt and adventure that cling to her. 

He cannot lie like this forever, to begin with, his throat is running too dry and he head is becoming too clear, so he heads below decks, in search of drink. There must be a bottle left somewhere. 

Eventually, he is rewarded with a near-full bottle of rum rescued from a rat’s nest between the spare spars and sailcloth – yes, the _Pearl_ definitely needed some work. But tonight was not a night for work; it was a night for a toast.

Jack stood the helm. He looked down the length of the deck and up and down the main mast and raised his bottle. “To our fortune. And to piracy.” He drank deep and spilled a mouthful – well, a sip – on the deck. The _Black Pearl_ might be his ship but if she couldn’t appreciate it, there wasn’t any point to wasting good rum. “May we never part again.”


End file.
